Charles Murray

The whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a story written into the political and artistic history of the 20th century.

When a well off man from the city arrives in a hick town to woo a wealthy widow, he encounters first an ornery model T ride to the shabby hotel, then his rival for the widow as they go on to a local fair. tempers flair and a challenge to a boxing match is met. Edited and adapted from Hard Knocks and Love Taps (1921).

The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died in those 25 years. Finally there are tributes to the Screen Snapshots series by Cecil De Mille, Walt Disney, Louella Parsons and Rosalind Russell.

This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.

In the Hollywood Hall of Fame - a wax museum - the figure of Eddie Borden comes to life and introduces us to various stars in effigy. Pining over the effigy of Clara Bow, her husband Rex Bell suggests that Eddie get on with Betty Boop. Betty asks Eddie to accompany her in a rendition of "My Silent Love."

Kelly's daughter falls for a revenue agent, and his divorced wife is after alimony.

A Gypsy violinist searches for her missing fiance, a circus worker who recently won a sweepstakes prize and was kidnapped by a hypnotist.

Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)

While a ship captain is at sea dealing with a mutiny among his crew, his wife is at home having an affair with his best friend.

A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.

The story begins while Tommy Martin and his mother, Martha Martin say goodbye to Henry and Reuben Johnson. After having stopped by the Mennonite farm, where Tommy and Martha stay with the William and Annie Decker, the Johnsons are headed back to their hometown of Goshen. The balance of the film is concerned with both trying to get the necessary train fare and with Tommy clearing his name over a misunderstanding.

Cohen and Kelly families go to Africa to buy elephant tusks.

Clancy and MacIntosh are a pair of stock comedy Irish and Scottish plumbers who have been partners for twenty years; but when Clancy accidentally buys some shares on margin, MacIntosh's Scotch thrift rebels and their partnership breaks up. In the meantime, their children are in love...

18-year-old Rosie Kaplan O'Grady was found as an abandoned baby by O'Grady, an Irish policeman, and Kaplan, a Jewish pawnbroker, and raised by them as their own. She is being courted by two men; prizefighter Terry Callahan and a rich socialite, Tommy Sinclair and has to choose between them.

Running Hollywood is a comedy short.

The Cohens and the Kellys travel to Scotland to buy plaid in the hopes that a prince will start a new fashion trend.

A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.

To impress the girl he loves, a naive country boy tries to capture a group of local bootleggers.

A young mother, Mildred, doesn't know that her husband Walter is cheating on her. One night she attends a party with a friend of her husband's, and the man gets drunk and begins groping her when they get home. Her husband sees this and uses it as an excuse to sue his wife for divorce. In the ensuing trial he wins, due to fraudulent evidence, and gets custody of the child. Complications ensue.

Ben Turpin's rival marries his college sweetheart played by Phyllis Haver.

A mother and her son's lives are upended by the arrival of a wealthy flapper to their small New England fishing village.

An oil tanker burns at sea, and Molla Hansen, the captain's daughter, is the only survivor. Her rescuer, lighthouse-keeper Silas Martin, is fatally burned, and begs Molla to look after his daughter, Pearl. Meanwhile, Captain Rodney O'Malley, Molla's grief-stricken fiancé, departs on a long cruise. Two years later, Pearl is seduced by rum-runner Charley Watts, although she blames engineer Ira Meers. Molla learns of Pearl's pregnancy and holds Ira at gunpoint in the lighthouse. When Pearl discovers that Charley is already married, she locks him in the lighthouse tower, floods it with gas, and hurls a lighted lantern at him. Pearl and Charley are killed, but Ira recovers. The explosion signals Rod's ship, and he and Molla are reunited. A lost film.

A young married couple appears before a judge to get a divorce. The wife shows the judge some pictures of her husband with his arms around another woman, as "proof" that he was cheating on her. The husband, for his part, claims that he was just innocently helping the woman and that he was being blackmailed by the photographer who took the picture.

An innocent country girl who happens to have a lovely singing voice falls under the influence of a ruthless Broadway producer. At first she's dazzled by the producer's surface charm as well as those bright lights the title refers to, but eventually gets a dose of reality

A short packed with more stars and gags than most features of its day, this film delivered a gaggle of guffaws!

Because he refuses to be a tool for a political mob, Watts, an ex-senator, is relegated to the public wastebasket. When he opposes a rival politician in a mayoral campaign, Watts evokes the public's sympathy and is elected to the mayor's chair, again becoming a power in local politics.

In 1913, Carl is released from prison, where he served a sentence for stealing. Spurned by his circumstance, Carl rejects God and resumes his fast life of crime. Before long, his fate intersects with that of Mary, a devout orphan, prompting a romance and a reevaluation.

Jacob Cohen, who owns a dry goods store, and Patrick Kelly, an Irish cop, are constantly at loggerheads, feuding over anything and everything. Kelly's son, Tim, and Cohen's daughter, Nannie, fall in love despite the bickering of their parents; when they cannot get parental consent for their marriage, they secretly wed.

"Mismates" is the story of a wealthy youth who, against his mother's wishes, marries a poor girl and is disowned. At first determined to support himself and his wife, he soon craves the accustomed luxury and deserts his wife and child. On false information provided by the boy's mother and substantiated by himself the wife is sent to jail and the child kidnapped by the husband. This is where the drama kicks in.

Stage comedian Patrick O'Brien is fired from his job because of his drinking celebration of his son, Jimmy, graduating from college. After the show he meets his son on a cabaret and there meets Abel Finklestein and his daughter, Miriam, and the two fathers form a business alliance, suspected of being bootlegging. They are arrested but are released after it is found they were importing molasses - but Miriam has to promise to marry Sam Berkowitz to secure the release. Jimmy and both fathers are unhappy with this turn of events. This film is lost.

Ellie Byrne and Don Lane, chums, living in the poor section of a factory town, go away to make their fortunes. Ellie wishes to become a lady so that she can marry Preston Dutton, a society chap, and Don becoming infatuated with Stephanie Parrish, daughter of a wealthy man. Ellie becomes a leading actress and Don the author of her first play. Ellie refuses Dutton’s suit when she learns he is after her money, and Stephanie returns Don’s engagement ring. Ellie and Don go back to the factory town disillusioned. They realize that they love each other and in reality had not bettered themselves for someone else but for each other. A lost film.

An ape is suspected of committing a series of murders.

A present-day stereotypically-Irish American politician is vaulted into ancient Greece after receiving a bump on the head. This film is lost.

This epic Western-melodrama was based on the popular novel by Harold Bell Wright. Two old prospectors, Thad Grove and Bob Hill find an infant in the cabin belonging to Sonora Jack, a notorious bandit. The girl, Marta, grows to womanhood.

Sam, a young man in a small town, is accused of being a thief. Unable to prove his innocence--and not knowing that he's being framed by a local villain to keep him away from pretty young Mary, the town beauty whom the villain wants for himself--he leaves town and goes to Hollywood to become an actor. He eventually returns home to town as a star, but once again finds himself the victim of the town villain, who this time abducts sweet young Mary. Sam must use all his acting skills to track down the villain and save Mary.

The dissolute Count Pierre Tornai, having dissipated his fortune in Paris, embezzles embassy funds while intoxicated; and after spending his last penny on a dancer, he contemplates suicide but is persuaded to enlist in the Foreign Legion. Based on the 1922 play Der Legionër by Lajos Biró.

A dancing instructor gets involved with a newly rich family.

Silent comedy film directed by William Beaudine..

A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country. When he sees that her father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him.

Charlie plays an actor who bungles several scenes and is kicked out. He returns convincingly dressed as a lady and charms the director, but Charlie never makes it into the film.

Fred was no highbrow, but in spite of all her primness and learning, he fell for Mary's undoubted charm. One day he was handed this communication: "Dear Freddie: I am going to Box Springs to be quiet and alone with by beloved Samuel Johnson, Lovingly, Mary Highbrow." Jealous rage stirred Fred's bosom for his new found rival. He followed, blood in his eye. Mary, the highbrow, however, explained matters to both Fred and Blacksmith Johnson, but Fred at the time was a little worse off for his experience.

Young Gloria O'Connell falls in love with her neighbor, James Oliver. She is sent to a small town to stay with her three spinster aunts, while James becomes a newspaper reporter and arranges to write a story on the town and its large old-maid population. James pursues overweight "Hippo" Harger, a rival for Gloria's affections, and challenges him to a duel. When James' newspaper story appears, the disgruntled old maids hunt down the author. In a fit of anger, Gloria decides to marry "Hippo," but James rescues her at the office of the justice of the peace. The youthful lovers continue their relationship with their parents' understanding.

Rooly, Pooly and Dooly were "picture sandwiches," but hardly shining lights, even in that capacity. Consequently they were "canned" by the management. A brilliant idea; one would play the wild man in the village square, a real live show of their own. Rooly and Pooly then basked in the society of fair country belles, but Dooly at length was rescued by Miss Smart, looking for excitement. She was not disappointed.

Hard as nails and as strong winded as a gale in March, Red Hicks may have been a bit "chesty," but he was in perfect trim. The town depended on the champion, O'Shea, the fighting Irishman, to make soft putty of the world famous pugilist, but on the day of the fight there was no O'Shea. The supposition was he did not have the price: and other domestic difficulties interfered. O'Shea's trainer, however, solved the problem and Bed Hicks found his Waterloo.

Charlie takes care of a man in a wheelchair.

Charles Murray out romancing in the park.

Mabel goes home after being humiliated by a masher whom her husband won't fight. The husband goes off to a bar and gets drunk.

Behind enemy lines, Captain Bob White disguises himself as a woman in order to fool members of the German High Command, including the Kaiser himself.

This Keystone from the end of 1914, involving the usual suspects running around some plumbing issues will not hold many surprises for those familiar with Keystone in this period, or, indeed, with the works of the Three Stooges, who often played inept plumbers. It is, nonetheless, very nicely performed, especially by Charles Murray who mugs it up freely and ineptly, as well as the pretty girl who plays the house's maid.

Four miscreants get revenge on the police chief by planting bombs in his house.

A comedy made by Keystone Studios starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, both of whom co-directed the movie. This is Chaplin's only lost film as no copy is known to exist.

A henpecked husband and his wife vacation at a seaside resort. While he's enjoying the view of the local bathing beauties, he has to be careful not to let his wife see him enjoying himself.

Silent Keystone Comedy dealing with a girl's college dorm.

Café de Luxe's owner comes back to his restaurant after a vacation.

In the home of ease and refinement a new life opens to the girl. She no longer is obliged to resist the sordid way of poverty and sin. The woman's indulged son, overcome by his weakness and debt, robs his mother. It is then the girl saves the home from disgrace.

Stout Hearts But Weak Knees

A slapstick comedy with Charles Murray & Louise Fazenda.

A young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy husband. As he climbs the ladder of success, he abandons the homely values and begins an affair with a beautiful woman. His wife leaves him, returning to her mother's home where she bears a child. When the husband is abandoned by his lady friend, remorse drives him to find his wife.

Soldiers of Misfortune

Lost at the Front is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by Del Lord and written by Hampton Del Ruth, Frank Griffin, and Ralph Spence. The film stars George Sidney, Charles Murray, Natalie Kingston, John Kolb, Max Asher, and Brooks Benedict. The film was released on May 29, 1927, by First National Pictures.